Olivia Pedroli, The Den

Switzerland, 2010.

"This third album, at the crossroads between classical, folk and experimental music, was released on September 27th, 2010 under the musician’s real name, Olivia Pedroli. It shows the evolution of her compositions and voice towards more personal and enchanting horizons."

Classically trained Olivia Pedroli was born in Switzerland. "The Den", which was produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson, combines Olivia's enchanting voice with the most beautiful experimental folk compositions.

Playlist:

1. Bow
2. The Day
3. A Path
4. To Be You
5. Raise Erase
6. You Caught Me
7. I Play
8. Stay
9. House
10. Silent Emily

Link.

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Clint Mansell, Black Swan Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

England, 2010.

Mansell was introduced to film scoring when director Darren Aronofsky hired him to score his debut film, π. And scoring Aronofsky's movies is all he's been pretty much doing ever since.

"Black Swan" revolves around a Swan Lake production by a ballet company. As a result, the soundtrack is heavily influenced by Tchaikovsky's ballet, sometimes even including variations of the original music. This is really amazing stuff.

Playlist:

1. Nina's Dream
2. Mother Me
3. The New Season
4. A Room of Her Own
5. A New Swan Queen
6. Lose Yourself
7. Cruel Mistress
8. Power, Seduction, Cries
9. The Double
10. Opposites Attract
11. Night of Terror
12. Stumbled Beginnings...
13. It's My Time
14. A Swan Is Born
15. Perfection
16. A Swan Song (for Nina)

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Portland Cello Project, The Thao & Justin Power Sessions

US, 2009.

The Portland Cello Project is an “indie cello orchestra”, that is to say the combination of a group of classically trained cellists with different musicians and vocalists of the Portland indie scene. This album is the collaboration of the band with Thao (from Thao with The Get Down Stay Down) and Justin Power.

Playlist:

1. The Lamb
2. Beat (Health, Life And Fire) (Featuring Thao)
3. Cut The Rope (Featuring Justin Power)
4. Mouth For War
5. Tallymarks (Featuring Thao)
6. Por Una Cabeza
7. Violet (Featuring Thao)
8. Hungry Liars (Featuring Justin Power)
9. Geography (Featuring Thao)
10. Seeds May Fall (Featuring Justin Power)
11. Turkish Wine
12. Travel (Featuring Justin Power)

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Bark Cat Bark, Á Lífi

France, 2009.

Bark Cat Bark is the music project of multi-instrumentalist Josh Todd from Paris, France. His music is recognized by its use of a large variety of instruments usually in minimalist compositions, often with a touch of either European classical music or French folk music but has also included in his music; Post-rock, Balkan, Drone, Tropicália, Electronica & Latin Jazz.

Playlist:

1. Verona
2. Lac Pavin
3. Galatia
4. Iceland
5. Hóp
6. Père Lachaise
7. Intervalle
8. Á Lífi
9. Palermo a Larino

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Mono & World's End Girlfriend, Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain

Japan, 2006.

A collaboration between instrumental post-rock band Mono and fellow Tokyo native and modern electronic composer World’s End Girlfriend

In 2006 they released Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain, a five-part sojourn of neoclassical grace and luminescence that defies lazy categorization. As dark as the bottom of the ocean and nearly as otherworldly, “Palmless” finds Mono inhabiting a magical world previously only hinted at in their most orchestral compositions.

Playlist:

1. [untitled 1]
2. [untitled 2]
3. [untitled 3]
4. [untitled 4]
5. [untitled 5]

Link.

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Ólafur Arnalds, Eulogy For Evolution

Iceland, 2007.

"Icelandic composer and multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds is bound to find himself met with comparisons to his fellow countryman Johánn Johánnsson: Arnalds' highly cinematic approach has that same instantly digestible quality that Johánnsson, and for that matter Max Richter, are able to tap into. After its initial string swells, the sweetly sorrowful opener '0040' starts to sound vaguely reminiscent of the mournful piano music at the end of the '70s Incredible Hulk movies, and that certainly isn't intended as a jibe, it's lovely stuff, if rather dramatised. The ensuing pieces maintain this wistful, downbeat sound, riffing on various permutations of string and piano arrangement, only for Arnalds to whip the rug from under your feet with the brash guitar distortion of closer '3704/3837' which features some seriously histrionic quiet-loud post-rock action, only for all the drums and fuzz to crumble away abruptly for the lonesome, organ-fuelled coda. Gorgeous."

Playlist:

1. 0040
2. 0048/0729
3. 0952
4. 1440
5. 1953
6. 3055
7. 3326
8. 3704/3837

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Slow Six, Tomorrow Becomes You

US, 2010.

"Put this collective in the “rock” bin only because rock fans are so likely to like them. For while many Brooklyn bands bandy about the term “experimental,” Slow Six makes it meaningful with piercing string snippets, haunted motifs, and glassy—or is it Glass-y?—synths.

Call them post rock, call them chamber music, call them experimental neo-classical. No matter what you choose, understand that broad genre descriptors do little to describe the striking compositions of Brooklyn collective Slow Six."

Playlist:

1. The Night You Left New York
2. Cloud Cover (Part One)
3. Cloud Cover (Part Two)
4. Because Together We Resonate
5. Sympathetic Response System (Part One)
6. Sympathetic Response System (Part Two)
7. These Rivers Between Us

Link.

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Clogs, The Creatures In The Garden Of Lady Walton

US, 2010.

Clogs’ “classical” music is the result of a peculiar writing process more akin to a rock band or a jazz quartet. The members come to rehearsals with basic ideas that the group riffs on and develops in jam sessions and live performance. Newsome later arranges these ideas into elegant and complex musical narratives that meld and extend the ideas of minimalist, modernist, and romantic composers, adding sounds and melodies drawn from the folk music of India, the Jewish Diaspora, and everywhere else.

This is outstanding! Can't stop listening to it.


Playlist:

1. Cocodrillo
2. I Used to Do
3. On the Edge
4. Red Seas
5. The Owl of Love
6. Adages of Cleansing
7. Last Song
8. To Hugo
9. Raise the Flag
10. We Were Here

Link.

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Esmerine, If Only A Sweet Surrender To The Nights To Come Be True

Canada, 2003.

Esmerine is an experimental instrumental group started in 2003 by Bruce Cawdron and Beckie Foon, who have contributed to other Montreal-based bands as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Set Fire to Flames, and A Silver Mt. Zion.

Esmerine’s music consists mainly of percussion, cello, and marimba, lacking the guitars present in other Godspeed side-projects. Esmerine’s style shares many characteristics with minimalist classical music, and chamber music.

Playlist:

1. Red Fire Alarm
2. And They Left No Footprints In The Dust Behind Them
3. Nohna's Lullaby
4. Where There Is No Love There Is No Justice
5. Tungsten
6. The White Blazing Star
7. Luna Park
8. The Marvellous Engines Of Resistance

Link.

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Worrytrain, Fog Dance, My Moth Kingdom

US, 2007.

A fusion of neoclassical music and electronic noise by Joshua Neil Geissler. Over the last five years Worrytrain, living outside of Chicago, has quietly surfaced. From tapping cinematic and experimental fields, to blending genres such as modern classical and noise. The instruments most often heard are mandolin, piano and cello making melodies that are often gentle yet violent.

Fans of Rudi Arapahoe and Rafael Anton Irisarri will like this.

Playlist:

1. Prelude for Piano and Malaria
2. Celestial Police
3. For Auschwitz
4. Thundertrance Interlude
5. Achtung, God
6. Hospitalized
7. Soviet Passages
8. White Phosphorus Angels
9. The Moth Screamed Harvest
10. Saturniidae
11. Cambodia (piano duet)
12. Exorcism for Cello and Malaria
13. The Trenches Choir
14. Ode to Faithful Kataklysm
15. End Theme

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Johan Söderqvist, Let The Right One In (O.S.T.)

Sweden, 2008.

Johan Söderqvist is a Swedish composer who attended the royal college of music in Stockholm, studying composition and arranging, and is best known for his film soundtracks. One of his most recent works, the original sountrack of "Let The Right One In" ("Låt Den Rätte Komma In") is a highly recommended movie about the friendship between a twelve-year old boy and a vampire girl.

Söderqvist has described the outcome as consisting of both darkness and light, and emphasized melody and harmony as the most important qualities of the music. It is performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. The score was described as "scrupulously weaving together strains of bone-chillingly cold horror with the encompassing warmth of newly acquired love".

Playlist:

1. The Arrival
2. Eli and Oscar
3. Eli's Theme
4. The Slaughter
5. Oscar in Love
6. Hiding the Body
7. After the Fight
8. Oscar Strikes Back
9. Virginia Wakes Up
10. The Father
11. Spotting a Victim
12. Giving Up
13. Death of Håkan
14. Virginia Is Bitten
15. Then We Are Together
16. Virginia in Flames
17. Eli Bleeds
18. Related By Blood
19. Lacke Dies
20. Going Home
21. Let The Right One In

Link.

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Bark Cat Bark, Cittadinanza

France, 2009.

"Bark Cat Bark is the music project of multi-instrumentalist Josh Todd, hailing from Paris, France. His music is recognized by the use of a large variety of instruments and minimalist compositions, often with a touch of either European classical music or French folk, but also influenced by post-rock, Balkan folk, drone, tropicália, electronica & latin jazz. He has been compared to musicians such as Yann Tiersen, Zach Condon, Jeremy Barnes and Jónsi Birgisson."

Playlist:

1. Antico Verrès
2. Benque Viejo
3. Deodoro Anthem
4. Barivia in Bálsamo
5. Hyksos
6. Viravira Fever
7. Berovo Berovo Bravo
8. Haipakka
9. The Panther in Zaventem
10. The Clock From Svanaasen
11. Obera Sundown
12. Draugur
13. Lac Fourchu

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The Tumbled Sea, Melody/Summer

US, 2009.

The Tumbled Sea is a one man project from Boston, Massachusetts, and this is his second album. Hauntingly beautiful piano melodies.

Playlist:

1. Summer II
2. Summer V
3. Summer III
4. Summer IV
5. Melody I
6. Melody II
7. Melody III
8. Ø
9. \
10. Melody IV
11. Summer VI

Link.

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Ólafur Arnalds, "...And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness"

Iceland, 2010.

Ólafur Arnalds (born 1987) is a multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. Mixing strings and piano with loops and edgy beats, Ólafur Arnalds' music crosses over from classical to pop.

Playlist:

1. Þú Ert Sólin
2. Þú Ert Jörðin
3. Tunglið
4. Loftið Verður Skyndilega Kalt
5. Kjurrt
6. Gleypa Okkur
7. Hægt, Kemur Ljósið
8. Undan Hulu
9. Þau Hafa Sloppið Undan þunga Myrkursins

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Ólafur Arnalds, Found Songs

Iceland, 2009.

Born in 1987, Ólafur hails from the suburban Icelandic town, Mosfellsbær, just a few kilometres outside of Reykjavík. He has immersed himself completely in a world of delicate symphonic compositions generating near weightless orchestral pieces.

Arnalds explores the crossover from classical to pop by mixing chamber strings and piano with discreet electronics which makes him a perfect fit for cinematic pop label Erased Tapes.

His motivations are clear: “The classical scene is kind of closed to people who haven’t been studying music all their lives. I would like to bring my classical influence to the people who don’t usually listen to this kind of music…open people’s minds.”

Playlist:

1. Erla's Waltz
2. Raein
3. Romance
4. Allt varð hljótt
5. Lost Song
6. Faun
7. Ljósið

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Le Lendemain, Fires

England/Sweden, 2009.

"Le Lendemain is made up of Danny Norbury and David Wenngren. Danny is from Manchester, England, David from Gävle, Sweden. David works under a bunch of guises, his most well-known being Library Tapes. Danny worked with David on the Library Tapes albums ‘Sketches’ and ‘a summer beneath the trees’ but ‘Fires’ is their first full album together. Danny plays cello and dulcitone, David piano and field recordings."

Playlist:

1. Fiore
2. Petrichor
3. Linden
4. Att Andas
5. Narbonne
6. Lois
7. Paus
8. Le Fleuve
9. Even With Eyes Closed

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Amiina, Kurr

Iceland, 2007.

Amiina is an all-female string quartet from Reykjavík, Iceland, and this is their debut album. They create beautiful ambient/chamber music with a touch of electronics. A perfect soundtrack for dreams.

Playlist:

01. Sogg
02. Rugla
03. Glámur
04. Seoul
05. Lúpína
06. Hilli
07. Sexfaldur
08. Kolapot
09. Saga
10. Lóri
11. Bláfeldur
12. Boga

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Philip Glass, Glassworks

US, 1982.

Glassworks is a chamber music work of six movements by Philip Glass. It is regarded as being a characteristically Glass-like work. Following his larger-scale concert and stage works, "Glassworks" was Philip Glass' successful attempt to create a more pop-oriented "Walkman-suitable" work, with considerably shorter and more accessible pieces written for the recording studio.

Playlist:

1. Opening
2. Floe
3. Island
4. Rubric
5. Facades
6. Closing
7. In The Upper Room: Dance I
8. In The Upper Room: Dance II
9. In The Upper Room: Dance V
10. In The Upper Room: Dance VIII
11. In The Upper Room: Dance IX

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Aufgang, Self-titled

France, 2009.

Aufgang is the reunion of two acoustic grand pianos and electronics. "They blend pianos, live drums and techno-inspired electronics into invigorating displays of virtuosity."

Playlist:

1. Channel 7
2. Channel 8
3. Barock
4. Sonar
5. Prélude du Passé
6. Good Generation
7. 3 Vitesses
8. Aufgang
9. Soumission

Link.

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